>Forcing the issue: the coming clash over property tax caps
The property tax cap clash features Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) on one side with his proposal of a statutory 2.9% cap on property taxes – and Gov. Chris Christie’s 2.5% constitutional hard cap, a collision that will likely result in some kind of amalgam. The question is which combination will prevail – or ultimately get vetoed with the point made for one side or the other? (Pizarro, PolitickerNJ)
Sunday’s Op-Ed from George Zoffinger that appeared in The Record is yet another must read from the outspoken former head of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Zoffinger, who once called former Democratic Gov. Dick Codey an idiot, this time digs into his reperoire of cartoon characters to compare Codey, a state senator, first to Homer Simpson and then to Sponge Bob Square Pants. And he didn’t stop there. He went on to liken former Chief Counsel Paul Fader to Sponge Bob’s neighbor in Bikini Bottom, Squidward Tentacles. DOH! (Isherwood, PolitickerNJ)
by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876, Library of CongressBorn: September 21, 1737 Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Education: Graduate of the College of Philadelphia (Lawyer, Judge, Author) Work: Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1776; Judge of admiralty for Pennsylvania, 1780; Appointed Judge to the US Court for the District of Pennsylvania, 1790 Died: May 9, 1791
Francis Hopkinson was a man of extraordinary talent and charm. Born into a family of substance in Philadelphia, he was the first scholar and first Graduate of the College of Philadelphia, which his father, along with good friend Benjamin Franklin, played a role in chartering. He studied Law in the office of Benjamin Chew (later, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania) and then continued his education in England, two years study with the Bishop of Worcester. He was a writer of music, poetry and satire. His notable works include “A Pretty Story,” a skeptical examination of the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies, and “Battle of the Kegs,” a satiric taunting of the British. Hopkinson claimed credit for designing the American flag, but the evidence for his claim is not clear. Hopkinson was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, where he signed the Declaration. After the War he was an active advocate, in speaking and in writing, for the New Federal constitution. He was commissioned a Judge of Admiralty in Pennsylvania in 1780, and Washington appointed him Federal District Judge for his native state in 1790. He died very suddenly of a missive epileptic seizure in 1791, at the still young age of 53.
>The ABC’s of Malware Malware (or MALicious softWARE) is defined as “software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner’s informed consent”. If you are looking to protect your computer system(s) from the various threats that can present themselves, you may want to first have a better understanding of what you are dealing with
For the full article click here.https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4 ____________________________________________________________
>Concerned Residents of Ridgewood Update – June 30 2010
Thank you for your continued support of Concerned Ridgewood Residents in our efforts to address the changes in the Village of Ridgewood’s Master Plan.
Please be patient and confident in the knowledge that we have been meeting to strategize and explore all of our options, including possible legal challenges. As a result of mobilizing hundreds of people for last Monday’s meeting: media coverage broadcast our call for help throughout the Village and garnered even more support from residents all over town. Your support continues to be critical to maintain the momentum and the interest.
We need to be realistic about what our options are and this takes time to fully investigate. On the backs of every patient at Valley (through high health insurance premiums, co-pays and other out of pocket charges), Valley Health Inc. has very “deep pockets” to pay for legal resources. While Valley can call on its $350 million cash surplus, CRR needs to rely on donations from the community.
Therefore, if legal action is taken we need to be laser focused. You can help now by getting the word out that we need funds. In order to mount any legal challenges we must be well funded and well organized machine. Donations, large or small to CRR permit us to move forward with appropriate legal counsel.
In the meantime, once again, please be patient while we structure our response and challenge to the change in the Master Plan. Many people in good faith are working diligently on this. Additionally, to the many who responded to the email call for help researching, organizing and assisting: Thank you! Once more detailed plans are in place, people will be needed.
Finally, there has been a great deal of speculation and conversation about possible Village Council candidates. For the moment our attention must be focused on the most critical and timely issues. The filing deadline for the elections is in September so it is likely prudent to review any and all candidates after the filing date.
Once again, thank you for your tremendous efforts and your continued support!
CONCERNED RESIDENTS OF RIDGEWOOD PO Box 150, Ridgewood NJ 07451
>Valley Renewal : Ridgewood Residents were BAMBOOZLED!
There will never be a redo. Ridgewood Residents were BAMBOOZLED! Ridgewood Residents have been DECEIVED! The original venue (for 6/21) of BFMS was moved to GWMS less than 2 business days before the meeting (afternoon Thursday 6/17). By this point the PB certainly should have coordinated the plan with the BOE/BFMS. How could there be such a serious breach of communication? Residents calling BFMS that afternoon (around 2pm)found no principal or administrator available to answer questions about this conflict. Multiple and differing excuses came for the PB and the BOE.
At first glance this could be construed as an honest conflict and so off to GWMS we will go. But let’s face it, on June 21 as people were planning to go to GWMS for the meeting an afternoon email, sent from the planning board, that no parking would be available near GWMS sent residents/ taxpayers scrambling to carpool. Meanwhile, Valley was already mobilizing employees to fill the auditorium.
Still let’s not be too cynical: some residents did arrive early and sat in the auditorium to save seats for friends and family. But they were kicked out by Joe Scala of GCA Services Group by order of Angelo DeSimone as authorized by the Planning Board. Scala, who was nasty to residents said he was ordered to secure the auditorium. Residents were forced to stand in the unsecured and sweltering vestibule as Valley Employees were herded in. The residents were being outnumbered quickly by out-of-town Valley employees. At one point a Village resident asked Scala which door would be opened for the public to enter the auditorium. She was told the door we (residents) were standing closest to would be opened as it was closest to the GWMS main doors. When the doors were finally opened it was those in front of where the Valley employees stood. The door by the residents remained locked and they began knocking asking someone to open the doors. A resident went in with the Valley group and opened it for her fellow resident/taxpayers. By this time half of the room was already filled by Valley. Meanwhile police from all over the county were mobilizing!
Cynical? Distrustful? Disbelieving? Suspicious? Don’t kid yourself there will be no redo. This was a concerted effort to suppress the Voices of the Villagers of Ridgewood.
by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876, Library of CongressBorn: October 1, 1730 Birthplace: Near Princeton, N.J. Education: West Nottingham Academy, Graduate of College of New Jersey. (Lawyer) Work: Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1774; Elected to Continental Congress, 1776 Died: February 28, 1781
Richard Stockton was born near Princeton, on October 1, 1730. He attended the West Nottingham Academy under Dr. Samuel Finley, and then earned his degree at the College of New Jersey (Now Princeton) in 1748. He studied law with David Ogden of Newark. Stockton became an eminent Lawyer with one of the largest practices in the colonies. He was not much concerned with politics, but applied his talents and person to the revolutionary cause when the day came. He was appointed to the royal council of New Jersey in 1765 and remained a member until the government was reformed. He was a moderate with regard to Colonial autonomy. He argued that the colonies should be represented in the Parliament. With the passage of the Stamp Act, such arguments were overcome by colonial backlash. In 1774 he was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. In 1776, the New Jersey delegates to the Congress were holding out against Independence. When news of this reached the constituents, New Jersey elected Richard Stockton and Dr. Witherspoon to replace two of the five New Jersey delegates. They were sent with instructions to vote for Independence. Accounts indicate that, despite clear instruction, Justice Stockton wished to hear the arguments on either side of the issue. Once he was satisfied, the New Jersey delegates voted for Independence.
Stockton was appointed to committees supporting the war effort. He was dispatched on a fact finding tour to the northern army. New Jersey was overrun by the British in November of ’76, when he was returning from the mission. He managed to move his family to safety, but was captured and imprisoned by the British. He was not released until several years later, badly treated and in very poor condition. He lost all of his extensive library, writings, and all of his property during the British invasion. He died a pauper in Princeton at the age of 51. https://www.ushistory.org/DECLARATION/signers/stockton.htm
>Christie orders Legislature into property tax special session Thursday
Gov. Chris Christie’s office announced this morning that the governor has ordered the Legislature to convene Thursday at 10 a.m. for a special session to consider his Cap 2.5 property tax cap proposal and the balance of his 33-bill reform package. In a letter to legislative leaders and high-ranking legislative staffers dated Monday, Christie says the special session is to focus on the cap on local property taxes, the cap on state government operational spending, the balance of his proposals to reform management at the local levels of government and at colleges and to consider any action he may take on S-29, the 2.9% property tax cap approved by the Legislature Monday and early Tuesday morning. (Symons, Gannett)
“When it became clear that members of the Meeting Room Filled to Overflow public left standing in the hallway would not be able to hear or see the presentation, Chairman Ken Hyman entertained a motion from the board to postpone the presentation and the meeting was adjourned”
In Park Ridge “When the council’s closed session ended and the doors to the chamber opened, those who could be accommodated inside – about 100 seated and another 40 or more standing – waited until 10 p.m. before the floor was opened for public comment. The overflow crowd of about 50 people watched a live television feed of the proceedings in the community room downstairs.”
Franklin — More than 100 residents attended the rescheduled council meeting on June 1, after an overflow crowd forced last week’s meeting to seek a new, larger venue.
Virginia House of Burgesses, Representing Virginia at the Continental Congress
by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876, Library of CongressBorn: April 13, 1743 Birthplace: Shadwell, Virginia Education: William and Mary College (Lawyer) Work: Admitted to Virginia bar, 1767; Elected to Virginia House of Burgesses, 1769; Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1775-76; Virginia House of Delegates, 1776-79; Elected Governor of Virginia, 1779, 1780; Dispatched to England to treat for peace with Gr. Britain, 1782; Associate Envoy to France, 1784; Minister to the French Court, 1785; Secretary of State, 1789; Established Democratic-Republican party, 1793; Vice President of the United States, 1796; President, 1801; Established University of Virginia, 1810. Died: July 4, 1826
More than a mere renaissance man, Jefferson may actually have been a new kind of man. He was fluent in five languages and able to read two others. He wrote, over the course of his life, over sixteen thousand letters. He was acquainted with nearly every influential person in America, and a great many in Europe as well. He was a lawyer, agronomist, musician, scientist, philosopher, author, architect, inventor, and statesman. Though he never set foot outside of the American continent before adulthood, he acquired an education that rivaled the finest to be attained in Europe. He was clearly the foremost American son of the Enlightenment.
Jefferson was born at Shadwell in Albemarle county, Virginia on April 13, 1743. He was tutored by the Reverend James Maury, a learned man, in the finest classical tradition. He began the study of Latin, Greek, and French at the age of 9. He attended William and Mary College in Williamsburg at sixteen years old, then continued his education in the Law under George Wythe, the first professor of law in America (who later would sign Jefferson’s Declaration in 1776). Thomas Jefferson attended the House of Burgesses as a student in 1765 when he witnessed Patrick Henry’s defiant stand against the Stamp Act. He gained the Virginia bar and began practice in 1769, and was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1769. It was there that his involvement in revolutionary politics began. He was never a very vocal member, but his writing, his quiet work in committee, and his ability to distill large volumes of information to essence, made him an invaluable member in any deliberative body.
In 1775 when a Virginia convention selected delegates to the Continental Congress, Jefferson was selected as an alternate. It was expected that Payton Randolph, (then Speaker of the Virginia House and president of the Continental Congress too,) would be recalled by the Royal Governor. This did happen and Jefferson went in his place. Thomas Jefferson had a theory about self governance and the rights of people who established habitat in new lands. Before attending the Congress in Philadelphia he codified these thoughts in an article called A Summary View of the Rights of British America. This paper he sent on ahead of him. He fell ill on the road and was delayed for several days. By the time he arrived, his paper had been published as a pamphlet and sent throughout the colonies and on to England where Edmund Burke, sympathetic to the colonial condition, had it reprinted and circulated widely. In 1776 Jefferson, then a member of the committee to draft a declaration of independence, was chosen by the committee to write the draft. This he did, with some minor corrections from John Adams and an embellishment from Franklin, the document was offered to the Congress on the first day of July. The congress modified it somewhat, abbreviating certain wording and removing points that were outside of general agreement. The Declaration was adopted on the Fourth of July.
Jefferson returned to his home not long afterward. His wife and two of his children were very ill, he was tired of being remote from his home, and he was anxious about the development of a new government for his native state.
In June of 1779 he succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia. The nation was still at war, and the southern colonies were under heavy attack. Jefferson’s Governorship was clouded with hesitation. He himself concluded that the state would be better served by a military man. He declined re-election after his first term and was succeeded by General Nelson of Yorktown.
In 1781 he retired to Monticello, the estate he inherited, to write, work on improved agriculture, and attend his wife. It was during this time that he wrote Notes on the State of Virginia, a work that he never completed. Martha Jefferson died in September of 1782. This event threw Jefferson into a depression that, according to his eldest daughter he might never have recovered from. Except that Washington called on him in November of 1782 to again serve his country as Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate peace with Gr. Britain. He accepted the post, however it was aborted when the peace was secured before he could sail from Philadelphia.
In 1784 Jefferson went to France as an associate Diplomat with Franklin and Adams. It was in that year that wrote an article establishing the standard weights, measures, and currency units for the United States. He succeeded Franklin as Minister to France the following year. When he returned home in 1789, he joined the Continental Congress for a while, and was then appointed Secretary of State under George Washington. This placed him in a very difficult position. The character of the executive was being established during the first few terms. Jefferson and many others were critical of the form it was taking under the first Federalist administration. Jefferson was sharply at odds with fellow cabinet members John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, both of whom he found to be too authoritarian and too quick to assume overwhelming power for the part of the executive. He resigned from the cabinet in 1793 and formed the Democrat-republican party. Heated competition continued. Jefferson ran for president in 1796, lost to John Adams, and, most uncomfortably, this made him vice president under a man whom he could no longer abide. After a single meeting, on the street, the two never communicated directly during the whole administration.
Jefferson again ran for the presidency in 1801 and this time he won. He served for two terms and he did ultimately play a deciding role in forming the character of the American Presidency. The 12th amendment to the Constitution changed the manner in which the vice president was selected, so as to prevent arch enemies from occupying the first and second positions of the executive. Jefferson also found the State of the Union address to be too magisterial when delivered in person. He performed one and afterwards delivered them, as required by the constitution, only in writing. He also undertook the Louisiana Purchase, extending the boundaries of the country and establishing the doctrine of manifest destiny.
Thomas Jefferson retired from office in 1808. He continued the private portion of his life’s work, and sometime later re-engaged his dearest and longest friend James Madison, in the work of establishing the University of Virginia. In 1815 one of his projects, a Library of Congress, finally bore fruit, when he sold his own personal library to the congress as a basis for the collection. Shortly before his death in 1826, Jefferson told Madison that he wished to be remembered for two things only; as the Author of the Declaration of Independence, and as the founder of the University of Virginia. Jefferson died on the 4th of July, as the nation celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his splendid Declaration.
As the budget nears its final lap, the state teacher’s union trained its sights on property tax caps, taking aim at proposals from both parties in a statement issued Friday. While it criticizes all proposed caps, the release from the New Jersey Education Association is mostly aimed at Gov. Chris Christie who has scuffled with the teachers’ union since taking office. (Isherwood, PolitickerNJ)
>Christie weighs whether to join suit challenging health-care law
Gov. Christie says he has not decided whether to sign on to a 20-state lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health-care law signed in March by President Obama. That makes New Jersey one of seven Republican-led states that have not joined the largely partisan fight. Interest groups on both sides of the debate are lobbying the governor, but some of his advisers say he should not join the suit. Capping property taxes and managing a difficult budget have rightly been his top priorities, they say, and New Jersey residents are more open than people in other parts of the country to health-care regulation. (Conaboy, Inquirer)
>”The venue for the PB was moved to a location that could not handle the crowd. This should not have surprised the PB since this was not the first time that residents were shut out of a Valley hearing.” –Couldn’t be at BF due to Project Graduation wanting to keep their theme a secret. Maybe the bandshell should have been used.
“In addition, at the last minute, residents were informed that parking would be limited, and they should carpool.”–Based on simultaneous church events. Church events sucked up less parking than anticipated.
“If BF wasn’t available, should the PB have considered rescheduling?”–New Council starts July 1st. Council will appoint new PB members. Moving the meeting back could have left unfinished business from the old PB.
“Valley employees most of whom are not residents to fill seats are shuttled to the meeting. The Village reserved half the seats for Valley employees.”–Don’t know if this is true. I think it was first come, first served. Many people that were shut out of the meeting were Valley supporters. See photos… https://bit.ly/9aQ7ND https://bit.ly/9lzlWQ
“The police responded to a crowd of 250 people chanting ‘Stop Valley Now’ by calling in support from four other communities, as well as Bergen County Police and the Sheriff with canine support. Was this a measured response to an out of control situation, or was it designed to intimidate opponents?”–One arrest was made. Hackensack resident shouted “storm the doors” according to police. Many audience members inside interrupted the proceedings on several occasions, disregarding repeated warnings not to do so. Despite this, nobody was thrown out. The response could have been worse. Better safe than sorry.
“The Bergen Record, has consistently supported Valley’s expansion plans, and their reporting has been short on facts. The editors of the record also opposed plans to reopen PVH. Does The Record editorial policy have anything to do with the fact that Mr Borg, President of the newspaper, is a member of Valley Hospital’s Presidents Council?”–The Record has released an editorial agreeing with your argument that the meeting was mishandled. See here… https://bit.ly/c8dDhz
“Valley is mobilizing it’s PR machine to divide and discredit the opposition. We have to stand together in opposition to Valley and public officials who thus far have refused to listen to residents.”–Valley has lost the PR war thus far. Looks like they could use a new “PR machine”.
MARCH WITH US IN THE RIDGEWOOD INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE
The NJ Tea Party Coalition will be celebrating the birth of our country – and the 100th Anniversary of Ridgewood – by marching in the Ridgewood July 4th Parade (This year the Parade will be held on Monday, the 5th.)
